If Democrats had an ounce of integrity, they would have gone with Howard Dean in 2004, Bernie Sanders in 2016, Sanders or Liz Warren in 2020, or Kamala in 2020 or 2024 from the beginning. They would choose AOC or Jasmine Crockett in 2028.
They are crazy. They know they are crazy. Yet Crazy loses national elections, so they have to lie about who they are.
Joe Biden is a lifelong doofus, but he was a center-left doofus. He wasn’t insane. John Kerry is an insufferable pompous @ss, but he is not a screaming lunatic. Biden & Kerry rescued the party from Warren, Sanders, Dean etc.
Hillary Clinton was the worst because she purposely amplified her crazy to appeal to the crazies. She yelled and screamed, but she was always more policy wonk than firebrand. She did rallies with Warren, but the true-believing Warren basket cases never believed Hillary was one of them. Hillary tried to be normal or crazy depending on who she was speaking to, and voters saw through this phoniness.
Barack Obama’s ideas are crazy, but boy did he know how to wrap those ideas in words that seemed normal and mainstream. Gavin Newsom is now trying that same strategy. Kamala Harris failed to straddle this divide because she is dumb, and dumb people in general are bad communicators. Harris is every bit as dumb and crazy as AOC and Crockett, but she hid it slightly better for awhile. She lacked Obama’s communication skills.
Look at who has been chosen to lead the DNC over the years: Dean, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Mike Perez, etc. These people are certifiably insane. Now look at RNC leaders: Haley Barbour, Reince Priebus and Ronna McDaniel are all normal human beings. They can speak without screaming in rage.
Donald Trump sometimes says crazy things, but his deeds are quite normal. His policy proposals are every bit as mainstream as any other Republican. His main difference is his reluctance to blow up countries that could really use a good @ss-kicking. If his worst deed is refusing to wage wars, his deeds aren’t bad at all.
Democrats need to decide if they want to continue running crazed lunatics and others forced to lie about who they are to hide the crazy. Michael Dukakis in 1988 was the last honest man to win the Democrat nomination for President. Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996 was the last Democrat to win the nomination by accurately portraying himself as a normal human being.
Democrats could try running another normal human being and letting them govern as a normal human being, but their history this century says that is beyond their desires or abilities.
If they remain crazy, and their voters demand crazy, Democrats owe it to Americans to embrace their crazy rather than try and hide it until after an election.
Think of the movie “Crazy People.” Dudley Moore says “Let’s just level with America.” Paul Reiser responds “We can’t level with America you crazy b@stard, we’re in advertising!”
That is the Democrat conundrum. They refuse to become normal. They refuse to honest about being crazy. So they keep pushing crazy ideas but using somewhat normal Trojan horse candidates to get the crazy through.
eric TYGRRRR EXPRESS